Years Worth of Memories
by Tainted Kattitina
Summary: One traveler thinks back on the Selkies they met on their journey.


Years Worth of Memories

A Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles fanfiction. The characters and places mentioned herein are not mine.

Warning: Ends on a sad note.

Inspiration: Scarborough Fair by Stella Voci, various Enya songs, and finally Oceano by Josh Groban.

One traveler thinks back on the Selkies that they have met.

* * *

It was in the tall grass of the fields I first met the twins of Leuda. The beat they tapped and the dance they did was enchanting. I learned that they were artists above all, including thieves. They gave me bread rich in spices and told me tales of the crashing waves on snow white sands. It was then I dreamed of a paradise build on the side of the desert island.

Over the years of random meetings they taught me the traditional dances and jumps of their people. Once they had received dried fish from their family and shared it with me. I had never tasted the fish that swam in their warm clear water before, and less so a fish that had been smoked with herbs over a fire made of driftwood. They taught me how to sundry my meat in a deserts sun, though I would wait years to put practice to work.

We often parted ways the morning after we met up, but some times we would travel for days until a fork in the road made us part. They taught me the traditional greetings and they talked about those who had parted from their lands. A bandit with a heart of gold who still wrote every month to his worried mother. A philosopher determined to rid the world of miasma who studied with the Yukes, his brother left at home to ponder the reason the Selkies were said to be from the sea. Their people intrigued me.

Once we met by a myrrh tree. The rain was pouring hard and steady like it is known to do on the plains. I had been dancing in the downpour with the thunder rolling and the lightning flashing. At night I showed them the Dance of Tears that my people did each time the rain came down. They were quick to add their own moves to it. Then as we were about to fall asleep I told them that the rain was speaking to us, words of those who were above calling to us. When we woke the rain had stopped but the twins bid me farewell and wished me heavy rains on my journey, just as I wished them bright sun.

They came to my town once for the Festival of the Crystal but set out soon afterwards. Their music was great but our people could never get along. They had jumped on ship first thing in the morning and I could not blame them. They also wanted to return home. After they left I realized they had left me some of the fish I loved in return for stealing some of the fruit from my family's tree. I could never be mad at them for they had become friends to me.

One day I managed to jump onto a ship that was heading to Leuda and found myself staring into the depths of the clear blue waters. Under me I found fish of all colors and sizes. Even the stars at night seemed clearer, just as in the day the sky was a brighter blue. My clothing felt too warm for me, I couldn't handle being in the sun. I then knew why the twins had dressed so lightly. It was not because they were warm but because they knew anything more and they would dry out when they reached home.

The old language that they had spoken brought peace to me many times. In their village I had traveled around with a translator to buy goods and play games with the local children. Yet the pretty songs they sang were sad if you knew the translations. Songs about an ocean that claims them and sand that slips away. The desert flooding and the sea drying up. Dow Hatte sang often for me under the moonlit sky as the fires died.

Then one day I learned that the twins had been killed while on their journey. I tried to help their village but I was only one caravaner. I learned a year after the death of the twins that the city hadn't gotten the myrrh it needed. The rain poured on me that day and for the first time in years I did not dance to it. Instead I walked into the river I had camped by and started the ritual for the dead that they had taught me. I knew there was nothing else I could do. That night I fell asleep on the riverbank with the rain pounding out the names of the Selkies. I prayed to the Goddess that they had returned to the ocean.

(A/N: A final note about a mention of a goddess. Let's face it, Final Fantasy is known for all their weird religions. In this fic the Selkies worship a female figure called the Goddess.)


End file.
